New dialog sequence with SUM 2.0 SP 06

Introduction

SUM offers several scenarios, which in turn have some specific flavors, like downtime-optimization. Choosing and configuring those scenarios was not standardized. With SUM 2.0 SP 06, we have put the most relevant decisions on scenario and downtime-optimization on the first three dialogs. In addition, the tool offers some helpful user interface (UI) enhancements.

See this blog for a general overview on Software Update Manager (SUM).

Welcome screen

The well-known first dialog of SUM still asks for the stack.xml, which is required for most scenarios. This dialog was adapted to include the decision if a stack.xml is required at all for the intended scenario. We name this Scenario Category, as some scenarios belong to category “with stack”, others to category “no stack required”.

Example: “Customer Transport Integration (CTI) only” does not need a stack.xml because no SAP software is updated. Until now, it was required to set a mystic configuration parameter in a SUM control file (SAPup_add.par) to enable this scenario. Now, the scenario can be chosen directly on the dialog without such a parameter.

So, which scenarios overall do require a stack.xml, and which not? You may now ask the tool: beside the radio buttons for the choice on scenario category, the icons provide the list of respective scenarios.

Scenarios with stack

The first dialog is handling the scenario category. For scenarios requiring a stack, the second dialog offers the scenario decision concerning migration, whether to use DMO. And the third dialog handles the scenario strategy concerning downtime-optimization.

Like the first dialog, the second one is well-known, it is simply shown earlier now:

Note that this dialog is not always shown. If the system is already running on SAP HANA database, no migration is offered. And if the scenario is a system conversion, there is no choice on migration: a source system on non-SAP HANA database will be migrated to SAP HANA, as SAP S/4HANA is always running on SAP HANA database.

The third dialog on scenario strategy will show appropriate options. It is related to the main configuration dialog which you may know from previous SUM SP versions, offering single system, standard, and advanced mode. This dialog was adapted and is shown earlier as well. The advanced mode has retired, instead the tool offers the option downtime-optimized. It depends on the scenario which downtime-optimization feature is offered.

For an upgrade scenario, nZDM is offered:

For a migration scenario, downtime-optimized DMO is offered:

nZDM up to now required to choose the Advanced mode, only then the checkbox to enable nZDM was usable – now this option is shown more prominent on the UI. Apart from that nZDM checkbox, the only difference between Standard and Advanced was the proposed (default) number of processes on the subsequent dialog.

Downtime-optimized DMO is now generally available with SUM 2.0 SP 06 (see blog). Like nZDM, it is now offered on the third dialog on scenario strategy.

For the scenario of a system conversion (from SAP ERP to SAP S/4HANA), SUM offers downtime-optimization as well:

• for a source system on SAP HANA database, nZDM is available
• for a source system on non-SAP HANA database, downtime-optimized DMO is available

Note

• Single system mode is not available for a migration scenario.
• For the scenario system conversion, the third dialog also offers the prerequisite check (blog).
• Features like ZDO (blog) and downtime-optimized Conversion (blog), both not yet generally available, will be shown on the dialog about scenario strategy as well, once they are available.
• [added on Oct 17th 2019] the Scenario Strategy dialog is not shown if it would only offer one option (e.g.: if downtime-optimized DMO is not supported for source database type, only the standard option would be possible, but showing a dialog without choice is omitted)

How to go Advanced now

As mentioned above, the advanced mode is no longer offered. According the description above, the only difference (apart from offering nZDM) were the default values for the process parameters. So, if you used the advanced mode before, and you want to keep this, simply raise the process parameters manually, either on the dialog shown, or using SUM Utilities menu Process Parameters:

You should consider using a downtime-optimized scenario, as this is more advanced than the previous advanced mode ?.

Scenarios without stack

If your scenario does not require a stack file, you select that scenario category. The input field for the stack file will be hidden then. On the next dialog, the available scenarios are offered:

You see that most of the scenarios are now offered on the dialog using the same URL (sumabap). In previous SUM SP versions, some scenarios required a different URL, e.g. benchmarking (migtool) and prerequisite check (chktool). Only the observer mode still requires a different URL, because it uses a different user.

Scenario title shown

If you proceed after the scenario was decided, the browser page header will list the chosen scenario. In the following example, scenario is upgrade, and scenario strategy is standard:

And the browser page title shows the system-ID now, which makes it easier to identify the right browser page in case you run several SUM runs in parallel.

Boris Rubarth
Product Management Software Update Manager